Bluefield Daily Telegraph in Bluefield, West Virginia

America's First Black Fighter Group History Summary

Roosevelt expanded Army Air Corps pilot training in 1938 amid NAACP and Black newspapers push for inclusion. The 99th Pursuit Squadron formed 1941 at Chanute Field, later in Tuskegee Alabama, trained nearly 1,000 pilots and thousands of support staff, achieved combat success in North Africa and Italy with Red Tail P-51 Mustangs, and faced segregation after the war until Truman desegregated the U.S. armed forces in 1948.